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Panel votes to seek grant for full-day kindergarten

By Rick Sobey, rsobey@lowellsun.com

Updated:
09/25/2013 06:32:34 AM EDT

BILLERICA -- Five-year-olds in school for just the morning could be a thing of the past.

As most area school districts offer full-day kindergarten, Billerica schools are a step closer to joining them after the School Committee voted Monday night to seek a state grant that would cover the costs of setting up the program.

"Full-day kindergarten would be a natural next step from the program we have," said JFK Elementary School Principal David Marble, who said the district offers half-day and extended-day kindergarten. "There's an unbelievable amount of research out there showing kids have drastic gains in full-day."

The "Transition to Full-Day Kindergarten Grant" is used to examine the feasibility of adopting free all-day kindergarten in the district, but the grant does not assure that all-day kindergarten is official in town.

Billerica Superintendent of Schools Tim Piwowar said the district still needs to examine whether there's enough building space, funding and staffing for full-day kindergarten.

He also said public support is an important part of the process, and there's been overwhelming support; 92 percent of the 706 online survey respondents "highly support" full-day kindergarten.

"If I could snap my fingers and make it financially feasible tomorrow, I would. It means that much," Piwowar said. "But we need to do it in a responsible way."

He said the letter of intent for the state grant is no cost to the district.

Marble emphasized the research comparing half-day and full-day kindergarten, suggesting that children benefit more from full-day kindergarten as part of an early learning curriculum.

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He said the research shows kindergartners are more prepared for school; they do better with the transition to first grade, showing "significant gains in school socialization and are equipped with stronger learning skills."

In addition, he said the research shows students have higher academic achievement in later grades, faster gains on literacy and language measures, and there are reduced retention and remediation rates.

Piwowar said the few people who did not "highly support" all-day kindergarten in the survey believe that 5 is too young for a full-day program.

School Committee members supported moving to all-day kindergarten, but board member Maryann Harring Laurendeau was concerned some parents might want to stay with the half-day program. Marble said they will have to figure out whether the district would be completely full-day kindergarten or a split between full-day and half-day.

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